Important: Safety Warning
This page recommends pest-control substances such as arsenic compounds, strychnine, or cyanide — in some cases applied to food crops. These substances are lethal to humans and animals, and their use is now banned or strictly controlled.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Cabbage Butterfly
a name given to several species of butterfly, especially Pontia, or Pieris brassicæ, a large white butterfly, the larvæ of which destroy cruciferous plants, particularly of the cabbage tribe.
CABBAGE MOTH (Mamestra brassica), a species of moth, the caterpillar of which feeds on cabbage and turnip leaves, and is sometimes very destructive. The caterpillar is greenish-black, \ and changes to a chestnut chrysalis in autumn. The perfect insect is predominantly of a rich mottled-brown color, with beautiful markings. The winter chrysalids should be destroyed when turned up in digging; the voracious grubs should be picked away from the cabbages, and the stems may be very profitably protected by making a ring in the ground with spirit of tar, quicklime, or, best of all, gas-lime.